Starship

by Michael D. Resnick

  She looked up, saw Cole had reached the ship, ran to the ladder, leaped up and grabbed it, and began climbing. When she was halfway up, a laser beam missed her head by inches. She turned and fired at a man who stood on the ground in front of the house. At the last second a small gust of wind ruined her aim and she missed, but by the same token his next beam missed her as the ladder swirled around in the wind. She fired once more, and reached the hatch before he could aim and fire a third beam.

  “I'm here!” she said. “Get us the hell out of here!”

  “Some ship you stole,” said Cole. “It's low on fuel, its light drive is inoperative, and two of its gyro-stabilizers are missing.”

  “I didn't have time to window-shop,” she said angrily. “Just take us back to the spaceport and we'll get the Kermit.”

  “This may be trickier than you think,” said Cole. “Djinn's men have probably contacted the spaceport already.”

  “Why?” asked Val. “They don't know we can't shift to light speeds or that we've barely enough fuel to get us past the rings.”

  “Let's hope you're right,” muttered Cole.

  She was right, and a few minutes later they were headed back out of the Albion Cluster to rendezvous with the Teddy R and deliver David Copperfield's cherished first edition.

  Cole waited patiently until Mr. Jones opened the front door and escorted him inside. He followed the man down the long corridor to the study that was becoming quite familiar to him, then entered.

  “Steerforth!” said David Copperfield happily, walking around his desk to greet him. “I never expected you back so soon!” He paused. “Have you begun making plans to get it for me?”

  Cole placed a package on the desk. “With the somewhat reluctant compliments of Euphrates Djinn.”

  David Copperfield stared at the package. “It's really here!” he said softly. “After all these years, it's really here!” He picked it up lovingly. “We'll speak in a moment or two. But first…” His alien fingers gently removed the wrapping, revealing the book in all its worn glory. He opened it, then looked up, and though he was an alien Cole thought his face, at that instant, looked exactly like that of a small child who was about to cry. “There's no autograph.”

  “You're looking at the endpaper,” said Cole. “It's on the title page.”

  Copperfield turned to the title page, and a look of almost human ecstasy crossed his face.

  “I don't know how to thank you!” he said.

  “Sure you do,” said Cole. “Fifty percent of market value for two years, and you'll help us set a trap for the Shark.”

  “Oh, that!” said Copperfield dismissively. “It's already done. But you deserve even more, and I shall have to find exactly the proper reward for you. You have no idea what this means to me.”

  “Back up a couple of sentences,” said Cole. “What's already done?”

  “The Pegasus will be here in three days,” said Copperfield, never taking his eyes off the book. “That should give you ample time to prepare, should it not?”

  “Three days is fine,” said Cole. “Did the Shark, or whoever you spoke to, mention anything about Donovan Muscatel?”

  “Not a word,” said Copperfield. “Have they gone into partnership?”

  “No,” answered Cole. “Muscatel's got three ships out looking for him.”

  “Ah!” said Copperfield. “Then he was the one who hit Cyrano a few days ago. I heard about that, but the details were very vague.”

  “The Shark hit Muscatel's headquarters, killed a bunch of his men, and destroyed a ship.”

  “Well, that's one way to eliminate your competition,” said Copperfield. “Of course, you must first make sure they're all gathered there in one spot.” He finally looked up from the book. “I just noticed: you've come alone. I hope the remarkable Miss Twist is still among the living?”

  “She's fine,” said Cole. “But now that you and I have an understanding, I decided I didn't need a bodyguard.”

  “One always needs bodyguards,” said Copperfield. “And she is quite beautiful and quite formidable.”

  “Yeah, it's a pity we're going to get her ship back for her. She makes a good addition to my crew, especially with her knowledge of the Inner Frontier.”

  “Retrieving her ship might not be as easy as you make it sound,” said the alien. “My reading of the Hammerhead Shark is that he'll blow himself and his ship up before he'll surrender them.”

  “Then we'll take all the billions you're going to pay us and buy her another ship,” said Cole.

  “You really mean to put her aboard her ship or a substitute?” asked Copperfield.

  “Yes.”

  “Then I take it that you are not emulating Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher.”

  “Wrong author,” said Cole. “But no, we're not.”

  “Perhaps I shall toss my hat into the ring,” he suggested. Then he smiled. “Figure of speech, of course. Actually, I never found a hat that could fit my head.”

  “That's fine with me,” said Cole. “Just try not to get her mad, especially in close quarters.” He looked around the study. “Have you got a subspace radio around here? My ship's too far away for me to contact it with my communicator.”

  “Anything for the man who obtained my heart's desire,” said Copperfield, making a gesture in the air with his left hand. Instantly a panel atop his desk vanished and a radio was elevated until it seemed to be sitting atop the desk.

  “Thanks,” said Cole. He walked over, uttered the scramble code and the Teddy R's approximate position on the edge of the Frontier, and waited for a response while Copperfield thumbed through his book.

  “Forrice here,” said the Molarian. “All I'm getting is audio. You want to go to visual, too?”

  “Not necessary,” replied Cole. “I'll make it brief. I'm still on Riverwind.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “I'm fine, the Kermit's fine. I want you to bring the Teddy R here within a Standard day.”

  “That close to the Republic?” asked Forrice.

  “That's right.”

  “Just making sure,” said the Molarian. “Is there anything else?”

  “Yes,” said Cole. “Service the weapons and the defensive shields along the way. I want everything in perfect shape when you arrive.”

  “Will do. Is that everything?”

  “That's it.”

  “See you soon,” said Forrice, breaking the connection.

  “Who was that?” asked Copperfield. “He didn't sound quite human.”

  “He'd be unbearable if he was any more human,” answered Cole. “He's my First Officer.”

  “What's his name, in case I need to contact him?”

  Cole smiled. “I gave him a code name you'll have an easy time remembering.”

  “Oh?”

  “Sydney Carlton,” said Cole.

  “I like him already!” exclaimed Copperfield happily.

  “I thought you might,” said Cole. “Back to business. Where was the Pegasus when it contacted you—on the Inner Frontier or in the Republic?”

  “Oh, on the Frontier, absolutely. Our friend Olivia Twist has seen to it that every police and military vessel in the Republic is on the lookout for it.” The alien looked at Cole. “Suddenly you appear troubled.”

  “I am,” responded Cole. “You're a few light-years from the Republic. Why does the Shark think he's going to get here without being identified and stopped?”

  “I never considered that,” admitted Copperfield.

  “Well, we'd better start considering that,” said Cole. “If we're going to lay a trap for him, we've got to know how to spot him when he shows up.”

  Cole had been back on the Teddy R for less than an hour before David Copperfield's image appeared in front of him, looking very distraught.

  “What is it?” asked Cole. “We're monitoring your system. Nothing's entered it since I left.”

  “I've been doing some serious thinking,” said Copperfield.

>   “And?”

  “And I must have been mad not to have realized the consequences of this agreement.”

  “We'll protect you,” Cole assured him. “I told you when we first discussed it that we'll stop him before he leaves the spaceport. He'll never get through to your house.”

  “You're not thinking this through, Steerforth,” said the alien.

  “Enlighten me.”

  “Like I told you, Olivia Twist has alerted everyone between here and the Republic. The police and the Navy are primed to find and stop the Pegasus.”

  “So?” said Cole, wondering where the alien was leading.

  “Don't you understand?” said Copperfield, his face agitated, his voice shaking with desperation. “If the Shark makes it to Riverwind with everyone on the lookout for him, either he's not in the Pegasus or he's disguised it so well that it got past the Navy. And if they can't spot it, how can you?”

  “He's still on the Pegasus,” said Cole with more certainty than he suddenly felt. “He's got three of Muscatel's ships on his tail. He couldn't take the time to change ships. Besides, there's no way he'd give up its armaments.”

  “Then it doesn't look like the Pegasus anymore!” yelled Copperfield. “It's got a new exterior, or new ID, or new something!”

  “We'll spot it,” persisted Cole. “I've got Olivia Twist here. Believe me, she'll know how to identify her own ship.”

  “Steerforth, we've been friends since boarding school, but I don't trust your judgment on this.”

  “You can't call it off,” said Cole. “If you contact him to stay away, he'll figure out that you were selling him out and then lost your courage.”

  “Why should he? I'll tell him I just heard of a plan to ambush him.”

  “You'd do that to Olivia Twist?” said Cole. “If so, then we'd have no choice but to explain to the Shark that you betrayed us all—first him, then Olivia and myself.”

  “You'd really do that, wouldn't you?” demanded Copperfield.

  “Only if I had to. Believe me, we'll stop him at the spaceport.”

  “But I don't believe you! I want to come up to your ship until this is over!”

  Cole shook his head. “You can't. We need you there or the Shark will know it's a trap. You have no other reason not to be there to meet him.”

  “Can't I come up to the ship and just throw my image down to my office, much the way I'm speaking to you now?”

  “Let me check on that,” said Cole. “I'll get back to you in a couple of minutes.”

  He killed the connection, then contacted Val.

  “Let me guess,” were her first words. “He's lost his nerve already.”

  “Good guess,” said Cole.

  “You told him he had to go through with it, of course.”

  “Of course. But he asked if he could come up to the Teddy R and just cast his holo down to the office. I didn't think so, but I thought I'd check with you first. I assume the Pegasus has portable sensors that can tell the difference?”

  “Just about every ship does,” said Val. “Maybe not this ancient thing we're on, but real ships do. More to the point, the Shark doesn't need them. He's got a couple of extra senses that Men don't have. A holographic image will never fool him.”

  “That's what I thought.”

  “So are you going to let him come up anyway?”

  “No.”

  “Good,” said Val. “I should have figured it. You seem polite and you seem soft, but no one commands a starship by being soft.” She paused and stared at him curiously. “Did you really win all those medals they talk about?”

  “They ought to be through talking about them by now,” said Cole. “It's ancient history.”

  “And they say you were demoted twice,” she continued. “Now, that shows character.”

  “You really think so?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Let me give you a gentle hint,” said Cole. “If you ever give up the pirating trade, don't enlist in the Republic's Navy.”

  “It's not real high on my list of priorities,” she assured him.

  “Okay, I'd better get back to David Copperfield and give him the bad news.” Cole broke the connection and contacted Copperfield again.

  “Well?” said the alien anxiously.

  “Out of the question,” replied Cole.

  “I don't like this, Steerforth. If you don't spot the ship, you're no worse off than before.”

  “Think it through,” said Cole. “If we don't spot the ship, you'll do your business with the Shark and he'll leave Riverwind none the wiser.”

  Suddenly Copperfield's alien eyes widened. “That's right, isn't it?” He smiled. “I trust you don't mind if I hope he sneaks past your defenses?”

  “They're your defenses too,” Cole reminded him. “And no, I don't mind.”

  “Good,” said Copperfield, obviously relieved. “I was about to rename my mansion Bleak House.”

  “That's what I like—confidence in an ally.”

  Cole broke the connection and wandered up to the bridge, where Forrice was in command.

  “Anything enter the system in the last few minutes?” he asked.

  “Three freighters and a one-man ship,” answered the Molarian.

  “Damn it!” muttered Cole. “We can't stay here forever. The Navy doesn't want the Pegasus half as bad as it wants the Teddy R. We're bound to be spotted before long.”

  “Excuse me for interrupting,” said Sharon Blacksmith as her image appeared between them, “but do you really think he had time to give the Pegasus much of a makeover? After all, we know that it was clearly identified as the Pegasus when it hit Muscatel's headquarters, and we can assume it's been on the lookout for Muscatel's ships ever since. I don't know how long it takes to disguise a ship, but it's got to be longer that he had.”

  “Let's make sure of it,” said Cole. “There's one way he could do it without touching down. In fact, he could even do it in hyperspace.”

  He contacted Val.

  “What now?” she asked.

  “Your crew on the Pegasus—were they all human?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about the Shark's?”

  “He had a couple of Lodinites, and I think there was an Atrian.”

  “But no Tolobites?”

  “What the hell's a Tolobite?”

  “Our crew member Slick is a Tolobite.”

  “No, he's the first I've ever seen.”

  “Thanks.” He closed the connection. “All right, if they didn't have a Tolobite who could work in the cold of space with no protective equipment, they couldn't have disguised it. I'll grant them one hour to get rid of its insignia—if it still had any after Cyrano; it'd make sense not to advertise who it is. Then, if the Shark is an even more skilled pirate than Val, and we have to assume he is or he couldn't have stolen her ship, either he or someone who works for him could change the registration and ID codes before they ever had to approach a planet.”

  “You're probably right,” agreed Forrice. “That means if we can get a visual, that might be enough for Val to identify it.”

  “It won't work,” said Sharon.

  “Why not?” demanded the Molarian.

  “I'm the one who questioned her when she came aboard, remember?” said Sharon. “The Pegasus is a class-M300 vessel. You know how many of them are zipping around the Inner Frontier? She's added all kinds of defenses and armaments, but its basic structure is that of a cargo ship.” She paused. “I just checked my sensors. You know how many M300 ships there are in the system at this very minute? Five. Are you going to blow them all out of the ether?”

  “All right, all right,” said Forrice. Then: “How do we know that one of them isn't the Pegasus?”

  “While you've been discussing the problems of the universe, I've been monitoring the spaceport. Nothing resembling Val's description of the Hammerhead Shark has shown up, so we've still got some time.”

  “But it does imply that we'd better post some
people down there, since we're not certain to spot him before he lands,” said Forrice.

  “Will he land?” asked Cole. “Won't he send down a shuttle?”

  “Cargo ships aren't like starships, Wilson,” said Sharon. “They're built to enter atmospheres and land. How else would they load and unload their cargo?”

  “Then we'd better organize a party to wait for them at the spaceport,” said the Molarian. “We'll need Val to identify them, and—”

  “Val stays here,” said Cole. “If there's a way to spot the Pegasus before it lands, we can't spare her.”

  “We could send some bodyguards down to David Copperfield's house,” suggested Sharon.

  “Yeah, I suppose it couldn't hurt,” said Cole thoughtfully. “But they're only part of the solution. The Shark's not going to take his whole crew to David's place, even if he manages to sneak past us—and we don't want to eliminate just some of his muscle, or even the Shark himself. We need to take out his entire crew before anyone else can find out what's happened here, or who's responsible for it. Even if we don't, how long do you think David Copperfield can stay in business if word gets out that he sold one pirate out to another?”

  “So Val stays on the ship,” said Forrice. “She'd damned well better be able to spot the Pegasus when it shows up.”

  “My sentiments precisely,” agreed Cole.

  “So who do we send?” asked Forrice.

  “Well, it can't be you or me,” said Cole. “Or Sharon, or Christine, or Val. I suppose Bull Pampas and—”

  “You're not thinking clearly, Wilson,” said Sharon.

  “Oh?”

  “There are three crew members who should have first refusal about going down there to face the Shark if he gets by us,” she continued.

  “Of course!” he said. “Bring me the two Men and the Pepon we picked up on Cyrano.”

  A moment later he was facing Jim Nichols, Dan Moyer, and Bujandi.

  “I've summoned you here to offer you an assignment,” said Cole. “The Hammerhead Shark is on his way to Riverwind. We have every intention of stopping him before he lands, but he may have disguised his ship, and if he has an inkling that we're waiting for him, he may have arranged some distractions. So I want some people waiting down there if he gets by us. You have carte blanche to take whatever action is necessary to see to it that he doesn't get out alive. But I want you to be aware of the fact that there's a chance that the local authorities or even the Navy may confront you before you have a chance to return to the Teddy R. Therefore, this is not an assignment. I need volunteers, and I thought given what happened back on Cyrano you should have first crack at it.”